World's Anti-AIDS Donations Slow, Cutting U.S. Contribution, Too

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: August 19, 2004

The rest of the world has contributed so little to the fight against AIDS that the United States cannot make its full contribution this year, President Bush's global AIDS coordinator said yesterday.

The coordinator, Randall L. Tobias, said he would wait two months beyond the contribution deadline, hoping other countries or private donors would come up with $240 million in donations to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. By law, the United States can give only a third of all the money going to the fund, so if other countries do not give enough, the government must limit its matching grant.

''I'm very hopeful that the rest of the world will take action, so we can donate the full amount,'' Mr. Tobias said.

In announcing formation of the fund in 2002, Secretary General Kofi Annan said he hoped it would attract up to $10 billion a year. Instead, it has struggled to raise much over $1 billion annually, and has handed out $3 billion in 128 countries so far.

Fund administrators have pointed out that poor African and Asian countries need time to rebuild frayed health-care systems and would have trouble absorbing billions right away, but the response has been disappointing.

''I don't have an explanation for why other countries have not stepped up to the magnitude that is needed,'' Mr. Tobias said yesterday. He did not criticize any country, but he praised the British, who in June effectively doubled their pledge for the next three years.

At this summer's AIDS conference in Bangkok, it was estimated that the world would soon need $24 billion a year to fight AIDS, said Anil Soni, executive director of Friends of the Global Fight, the fund's money-raising arm in Washington. If rich nations do not increase their giving, Mr. Soni said, ''we're fast approaching a plateau that would be insufficient.''

Under the budget it passed in January, Congress authorized the United States to donate $547 million to the Global Fund, more than double the Bush administration's request of $200 million. But a provision of the authorization limits the United States to donating no more than 33 percent of the world's total. To allow the full matching amount, other countries would have to donate $1.1 billion, which was due at the World Bank by July 31.

Instead, the world fell about $240 million short of the goal, so the United States is holding back $120 million. The money reverted to the control of Mr. Tobias, who could have given it to the fund he oversees, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is completely under American control and fights AIDS in 15 African and Caribbean countries. But Mr. Tobias said he has ''a lot of latitude under the law,'' and would extend the period for matching donations to the Global Fund until Sept. 30.

Several other nations accelerated their giving once the United States made its contribution conditional, Mr. Soni said, but the struggle in Congress over the money made the final figure unknowable until January. Because other countries have had their own delays in passing budgets, July 31 ''is sort of an awkward date,'' he added.

Italy and the European Union may make large donations by the Sept. 30 deadline, said Jim Palmer, a spokesman for the fund.

The United States has been the fund's largest donor, giving $983 million since the fund started. The European Union has donated $450 million, France $300 million, Japan $246 million, Italy $215 million, Britain $173 million and the Netherlands $100 million. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given $150 million.